Meridian 808.3 to replace Esoteric X-03 SE?

Yes as they say it seems to make a poor recording better. Any disc played felt very musical and detailed. I felt it was a little plumper in the midrange and walked a fine line as was very revealing yet at the same time not calling too much attention to its ability to separate transients. I sold mine to finance a 808.3 but waited till mine sold to buy and missed out. I own Mcintosh so I demoed the Mcd 1100 and kept it as it meshes well with my other gear and is very well balanced from the low to the absolute high. But if I found a good deal on the 808.3 I think I would have both, or do a serious head to head and sell one. I have a lot of lesser discs and would love to own another Meridian and am confident enough to buy blind. The Mcintosh is a great player, but it is less forgiving of poor recordings, but with decent to great recordings its top notch, super quiet, dead neutral with superb imaging extreme bass response and highs to shatter glass. As with most high end its a dual edged sword but with the Meridian its like a world class sports car that works still as a daily driver in heavy traffic.

Thanks for the interesting observation Gshepardbuster. Some say that the 808.3/808.2, while very revealing, is not very involving/emotionally satisfying. Do you find that to be true?

Not at all, but with audio what affects me does nothing for the next guy. With me the Meridian would stir the soul, reveal unknown detail, and have me listening to tracks which used to be skipped. The more I write about it the more I ponder having another Meridian, maybe the key to staying off the merry go round is to have multiple sources?? I wonder if my wife will buy that?